Welcome to Year 5!

The Teachers and Teaching Assistants in Year 5 are:

Moles Class

Muntjacs Class

We would like to take this chance to welcome you and your child to Year 5! To ensure that they are ready for year 5, we will ask parents to continue supporting their children in learning their times tables, practising spellings and reading regularly at home at least three times per week. During Year 5, the children are given opportunities to make memorable experiences, from building a moving vehicle in our ‘egg-mobile’ challenge to working collaboratively during our residential trip. We believe that these experiences, alongside our topics, will ignite a love of learning in your child.

Spring 2 Topic - Ancient Influences! 

Maths:  This half term in Maths we are introducing a focus on rapid recall of multiplication facts which will help across all areas of Maths. We will be starting off with work on multiplying fractions, finding equivalent fractions and calculating fractions of amounts. We will also make links to our computing work, creating, reading and interpreting graphs and tables before investigating the connections between fractions, decimals and percentages.

Guided Reading:  We are reading the quality text: Secrets of a Sun King written by Emma Carroll - Historical Fiction –  When Lilian Kaye finds a parcel on her grandad's doorstep, she is shocked to see who sent it: a famous Egyptologist, found dead that very morning, according to every newspaper in England! The mysterious package holds the key to a story . . . about a king whose tomb archaeologists are desperately hunting for. Lil and her friends must embark on an incredible journey - to return the package to its resting place, to protect those they love, and to break the deadly pharaoh's curse… 

We will also be using guided reading time to explore historical non-fiction texts about the Egyptians to help develop a wider knowledge of the history and culture of this wonderous ancient civilisation.  

Writing: We are going to start this half term with a literal bang! We’re going to create a piece of writing based on geographical natural disasters, where the children will write from the perspective of a news reporter explaining to the people of Egypt how to stay safe. We shall also be turning out attention to preparing an interview with the (Long dead) Pharaoh Tutankhamun and interview him about his life, especially focussing on the perspective of being a 9 year old ruler of the most powerful nation on Earth.

Year 5 grammar and punctuation will continue to be a focus throughout this unit. 

Art and Design: After focusing on large scale painting last half term, we are now going to be solving real life problems in Design Technology by looking at mechanisms used to collect water from a river to irrigate the surrounding land. We will be looking at ancient shaduf designs and creating a modern day equivalent. 

Science: Forces are our focus for this half term - investigating friction, gravity and forces in everyday life. We will be looking at the work of Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton and taking part in a range of investigations to learn about gravity, buoyancy and air resistance. Finally we will investigate pulleys and levers and use this knowledge to help with our Design project. 

PSHE:  Our theme for this half term in Me and My World  is ‘Being Safe’. We will be looking at how to make decisions to keep us safe in everyday life, then participating in the NSPCC’s Speak out, Stay safe safeguarding programme. This aims to help children understand abuse in all its forms and to recognise the signs of abuse in a child friendly way with the clear message to identify your trusted adults and 'Speak out' if you are worried about anything. 

Computing: We shall look at how a flat-file database can be used to organise data in records. The children will use tools within a database to order and answer questions about data. They will create graphs and charts from their data to help solve problems. They will also use a real-life database to answer a question, and present their work to others.

R.E: Christianity and specifically Salvation will be our focus for the half term. We will spend time unpicking the Easter Story, and looking at symbolism in the Last Supper. By the end of the term, we will be using our learning to discuss and  have a better understanding of  what Jesus did to have human beings.

Geography: We shall be conducting a study into the physical and human geography of The Nile river and explore it’s importance to the people of Egypt, both in Ancient times and Current. We shall be exploring and comparing the population spread, location of key towns and cities, and comparing those to the United Kingdom. We shall be making a judgement about whether the Aswan Dam is a positive or negative thing for the people of Egypt, and creating arguments for and against. After this, we shall be exploring the key question: ‘Why is the Nile River so Important to the Egyptians?’ and using the information taught to the children the previous 5 weeks, the children will construct detailed, thought filled answers showing of their topic knowledge.